Recently in College Sports Category
After Florida knocked off the previous #1 team in the nation,
Alabama, in the SEC Championship, they had their sights set on a National Championship. Their wish was granted,
untilafter Sunday's final release of the BCS standings, which had them slated as the #2 spot in the nation, and would face of newly crowned #1 Oklahoma. The game will be played on January 8th, at Dolphin Stadium in Miami,FL. This game will feature two of the best offensive teams in the nation, Oklahoma who is first, and Florida who is third in scoring. The difference between the team though based on statistics should be on the defensive side of the ball, where Florida ranks fifth in scoring defense and Oklahoma is 57th. Oklahoma's coach Bob Stoops said,"We've had better defensive years, I'm fully aware of that. But in the end, some of it has been geared to the style we've decided to play on offense, snapping the ball as quick as we can." On a more specific level, the game will feature arguably the top two quarterbacks in the nation. The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner, Tim Tebow, will man the show for the Florida offense, while the front-runner for this year's award, Sam Bradford, will line up behind the center for the Sooners. As you can see there is a lot of anticipation going into this year's national championship game, and I have a feeling it will be a close game due to both teams high octane offenses. Only time will tell this year's #1 team in the nation, and that will be revealed on January 8th in Miami.
University of Memphis men's basketball season-ticket holders will receive information this week about the new Tiger Scholarship Fund's Per-Seat Donation program. This program will "require fans to make a minimum annual donation to keep their season-ticket location from one year to the next" according to a front page article written by Jim Masilak of the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
ACC Associate Commissioner for Football Michael Kelly has said that local ticket sales for Saturday's Virginia Tech Boston College ACC Championship football game at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa has "already surpassed last season's game" which was held at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.
THATS IT!!! its a done deal finally. ESPN has now been named the new home for the four big BCS bowl games. It has been talked about for weeks now and everyone has seemed to see it coming. FOX sports was outbid by ESPN by around $100 million posting a staggering $495 million big to be paid out over four years. The news comes from the SportsBusiness journal reporting that it did not take long for the BCS presidential oversight committee to okay the deal from ESPN. University Presidents were expected to make a big stink about the games going to cable television, but no such resistance was met for ESPN and the BCS committee. FOX was reportedly overpowered by the bid and was not able to conjure up a reason for making their bid any higher, they were just not going to win this battle.
The BCS bowl games are now going to be on cable television... Hmmm is that good or bad? For one thing, its going to make ESPN millions of dollars as it still has part of the rights to the Rose Bowl as well which is already aired on ABC. They are expected to make record revenue from this deal just in advertisements alone. However, 16 million fewer people have the ability to watch the newly cable televised bowl games, I guess we will see how people react to that. This has been an interesting story to follow as we slowly begin to see more and more championship games and matches go from over the air television to cable stations. Who's/what is next to go??????
As I have talked about before, and continue to follow this story, it is reported that the major BCS bowls are ESPN bound. There is beginning to be a new trend in the sports world, that is moving from broadcast television, to cable television channels like ESPN. We have already seen it with the likes of "Monday Night Football," the Chase for the Sprint cup in NASCAR, and the British open starting in 2010. ESPN reaches 20 million fewer homes the
n its broadcast network partner ABC and other networks. This is why moving BCS bowl games, with such high levels of interest amongst the American people could be a gutsy move.
This has become just another case of looking for the highest bidder. Fox broadcast network, who has had the rights to these bowl games in the past has had the chance to match any offer given up until today. It is believed that they will not be able to afford the $100 million deal over four years which ESPN has posted to the BCS committee. It is obvious that the Disney Corporation is making out like a bandit who owns ABC, and eighty percent of ESPN. ABC still continues to own the rights to the all important Rose Bowl, and now Disney and ESPN may have all of the top bowl games on their cable network. If it is any consolation, the NFL, MLB, and NBA are not even close to being interested in making their post season championships to cable television networks. Who knows what the future has in store for championship play. Hopefully everyone will get to enjoy the excitement of big time games.
Perhaps the greatest college basketball coach ever, Bobby Knight, has took up a new challenge at the end of last year after his resignation from coaching. When his time at texas Tech came to an end, ESPN was quick to jump for the famed coach. He was used significantly in the postseason league championships and NCAA tournament coverage. This year his role will increase to include Thursday night contests, Sportscenter apperances, postseason analysis, and ESPN Radio coverage.
I think that as a coach Knight had his own way of doing things. This is true with sportscasting as well, but like in coaching, perhaps a different way will succeed. His three national championships are an example of how his different style works, and possibly ratings an increase with this different style of broadcasting.
The Sports Business Journal is reporting that the BCS is searching for a 60 percent increase in price for the rights to its four bowl games. BCS officials have entered into negotiations with Fox who currently has rights to the four championship games. According to the journal, Fox would have to pay $800 million dollars over a six year contract, or approximately $132 million dollars a year. This is a huge amount of money for Fox to pay especially during this economic time. Fox executives were not expecting such a dramatic increase in the price for the rights to the games, so there is going to be a lot of negotiation going on.
The BCS is supposedly doing this in order to open up the rights for the championship games to other networks such as ABC/ESPN. If ABC/ESPN were to outbid fox and obtain the television rights to the games, they would have a stronghold on all of college football. This will also give them the chance to move the games to their cable network ESPN which could in fact limit the number of viewers. That is something that the BCS executives are going to have to look at carefully because after all they want everyone to be able to view the game. At any rate, this story will be interesting to see how it all turns out and see if Fox is willing to drop a huge amount of money for four college football games. And if not, then see who is willing to match the asking price from the BCS. Just another reason in my opinion to move to a playoff style in college football.
After the turmoil that basketball head coach Kelvin Sampson put Indiana University through the Hoosiers have taken a step forward. Former AD Rick Greenspan resigned earlier in the year after Sampson was accused and penalized for illiegal recruiting violations for the second time. Bans were put in place on the school and they hired a new head coach to lead one of the most storied college basketball universities in the nation. Now the university took another step forward by hiring Fred Glass as Athletic Director. Glass, an alumnus of the school, will take over on Jan 2 after Greenspan finished out his terms of resignation on Dec 31. Glass is familiar with the programs and with the impact of athletics on the university. Before this hiring he was a lawyer and civic leader in Indianapolis.
I beleive that this is a good hire for the university. Hopefully he can help turn around not only the storied basketball program, but the football program as well. He seems to understand how the community and state of Indiana relies on Hoosier athletics as an economic, and self esteem booster. Even though there is loads of work to do you must start somewhere and this new step has now began in Indiana.
In recent years uniforms have become more then uniforms. Uniforms represent a team in a flashy and attractive way but do they have any meaning behind them? This season Nike and the University of Kentucky have revolutionized the meaning of uniforms. Nike's global creative director Tracy Teague decided to take a chance and totally change the men's basketball uniforms that haven't been changed in more than a decade. He wanted to dig deep and pull history from Kentucky its self and connect it with the basketball program. So when Teague thought about
Kentucky he automatically thought thoroughbred racing and even more a champion of the sport Secretariat. The colors of Secretariat went right along with the University of Kentucky, blue and white. So the new uniforms represent the silks of champion Secretariat.
I believe that these new uniforms are really going to be a hit. They not only have a story behind them but they can really connect to the fans and people of Kentucky. I also think that Nike has really started something and other colleges are going to jump on the bandwagon and put history into their uniforms.
The Alabama Crimson Tide shocked viewers who watched their nationally televised meeting with the Georgia Bulldogs. Coming in as eight-seeded underdogs, Alabama met up with three-seeded Georgia in a hostile atmosphere in Athens, Georgia. The game was extremely hyped and Georgia decided to go with the blackout theme. The Bulldogs wore their alternate black uniforms. They only bring these out for the most important games. However, Alabama wasn't intimidated by the higher-seeded Bulldogs. Surprisingly, the Crimson Tide jumped of f to a 31-0 lead. Georgia made a valiant second half effort only to fall short 41-30. John Parker Wilson, of Alabama, threw for 200 yards and tailback Glen Coffee added two rushing touchdowns.
Alabama seems to be extremely well-coached and versed to play in big games. This past win over Georgia was not the first game in which Alabama beat a top-ten team on the road. Wins like this over major nationally recognized competition only leads to more publicity for Alabama. This nationally televised competition brings the Alabama program a lot of positive attention. After his controversial exit from the NFL, Nick Saban appears to be doing a great job in the college game. Saban gives the Crimson Tide a confident and recognizable face to represent the Alabama brand. The sky seems to be the limit for this unflappable Alabama team.
